Trump's budget is so cruel a Russian propaganda outfit set the White House straight
By Dana Milbank Opinion writer May 22 at 9:00 PM
So it has come to this: A Russian government-funded propaganda outfit schooling the Trump administration on the cruelty of its proposed federal budget.
Mick Mulvaney, President Trumps budget director, unveiled Trumps ghastly 2018 budget proposal Monday afternoon in the White House briefing room, and one point of pride was that it proposed that the child-care tax credit and the earned-income tax credit benefits for working families be denied to illegal immigrants. Its not right when you look at it from the perspective of people who pay the taxes, Mulvaney declared.
But Andrew Feinberg, a reporter with Russias Sputnik news outfit, pointed out that many of the children who would be cut off under Trumps proposal are U.S. citizens. Whether theyre here illegally or not, Feinberg noted, those families have American-citizen children.
Mulvaney, who probably didnt know he was being interrogated by Sputnik, argued back, saying that Feinberg wasnt duly considering taxpayers and that we have all kinds of other programs for poor kids.
At this, another reporter in the room interjected: Youre cutting that, too.
It was a bizarre scene: An organization financed by Vladimir Putins regime, in the White House, lecturing a Trump administration official. (Maybe they arent colluding after all.) But Trumps budget is such that it leaves this White Houses credibility on a par with (or perhaps below) that of a Russian propaganda outfit.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-budget-is-so-cruel-a-russian-propaganda-outfit-set-the-white-house-straight/2017/05/22/acf7b948-3f40-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html